Kremlin says US pressuring other nations to seize frozen Russian assets

By Elena Teslova

MOSCOW (AA) - The current US presidential administration is actively exerting pressure on other nations, urging them to seize Russian assets, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday.

Commenting on media reports claiming that the Joe Biden administration supported amendments to legislation drafted to make the seizure of the Russian frozen money legal, Peskov said it is one of the ways to push for the relevant changes in Europe.

"They (the Joe Biden administration) are mainly trying to put pressure on the Europeans. This is a very paradoxical situation, because the main part of our assets is in Europe, not in America. And, as always, the Americans want to encourage Europeans to take illegal actions," he told Russian state news agency RIA.

Peskov warned that European countries will face losses, fines, and legal consequences if they fall for the White House's tricks.

After the start of Russia's "special military operation" in Ukraine in February 2022, the EU and the G-7 countries froze almost half of Russia's foreign reserves worth over €300 billion euros.

About €200 billion are in the EU, mainly in the accounts of the Euroclear Belgium, one of the world's largest settlement and clearing systems. At the end of October, the international company reported that in the first nine months of 2023 it earned about €3 billion as interest on investing sanctioned Russian assets.